The US regulator has changed the regulations of the innovative framework operating in the 3.5GHz band, with the view to “encourage increased investment”.
Background: the CBRS was created in 2015, introducing a three-tiered sharing framework including incumbents, Priority Access Licenses (PALs), and General Authorized Access (GAA) users. It facilitated market entry for local mobile broadband services.
What is different? The main change is in the size of the PALs areas, which is now based on counties rather than census tracts, thereby becoming significantly larger. Licences are also extended to 10 years (much more than the previous period of three years), and are now renewable. Seven PALs will be available in each licence area.
Why is it important? The larger size of PAL areas will be seen favourably by the big carriers: there are are about 74k census tracts in the US, as opposed to circa 3,100 counties. This should now make it much harder for small ISPs to buy PAL licences and deploy mobile broadband.
